Low, Trust [Rough Trade]

After six albums, Low are one of those rare bands who've refined a trademark formula to greater and greater effect. Their signature sound is harmonious sloth, rendered huge here as their simple guitar, bass, drums and quavering vocals reverberate with more power and implied gravity than ever. Plainly, the trio understand the potency of a good dirge more than most, and Tchad Blake (producer of Pearl Jam's Binaural) adds ambient flutter and exploits their potential for grandeur in a way previous mixers (notably Steve Albini) have never attempted.

But there's far more range to Trust than reductive stereotyping would suggest: unspeakably beautiful folk-pop assisted by Gerry Blakely of America ("La La La song"); haunting sepulchral blues ("Diamond"); Spectoral gallops ("Last Snowstorm"); even drone-rock that resembles Neil Young fronting Spacemen 3 ("Canada"). The effect is a kind of ghostly reconfiguration of classic rock, from a band blessed with unique presence and an unusually melodious minimalism. Outsanding.